Beam generators are used to produce electromagnetic beams at various wavelengths, frequencies and power levels for various purposes. Beam generators fall into multiple classes to include low noise amplifiers (LNA), high power amplifiers (HPA) which include solid state power amplifiers (SSPA), traveling wave tube amplifiers, (TWTA) and klystrons and, in the optical wavelengths, erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) and High-power solid-state laser amplifiers (HPSSLA) are a few examples. The characteristics of the magnetic component of the electromagnetic beam has historically been resistant to fine control due to noise sources inherent in the generating processes. Conventional beam generators such as traveling wave tubes and/or klystrons require a substantial amount of power to generate the bias current necessary for traditional beam generation. The bias current is used to produce a magnetic field of sufficient density to contain and manage electron beam divergence over beam travel distance in a vacuum chamber to specified parameters. The operational output efficiency of conventional beam generation devices is compromised by the often large power draw necessary for the bias current; another consequence of conventional beam generation is the inherent introduction of noise. Typical beam generators have an output efficiencies ranging from 30-to-35% and may require significant power conditioning and/or signal processing to eliminate noise. If such a magnetically modulated beam could be created, information modulated onto it could (theoretically) not be detected without a priori knowledge of the beam characteristics, making it extremely difficult to intercept when used, for example, as a communication beam. Practice has not lived up to theory, and a need for a beam generator controllable to efficiently and reliably produce a magnetically modulated beam has not been commercialized.
Beams of interest may include particle beams or electromagnetic beams in any portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Having a single beam-generating device (hereinafter “BGD”) for all portions of the electromagnetic spectra and for particle beam generation would be economically advantageous.